Aquascutum / Fall 2011 RTW

Search a show by:

“Outerwear and tailoring, that’s what Aquascutum is to me,” said Joanna Sykes, the British house’s new creative director, backstage, moments after the last dramatically sized-up and slickly detailed coat had exited the runway. “It’s an iconic name, so I was looking at pieces that were equally iconic—the peacoat, the field jacket, and the trench, of course.” In a week where British heritage has been to the fore, talk about good timing for Sykes and the latest incarnation of Aquascutum. But so as not to get too rooted in some misty-eyed longing for the past, Sykes decided to cut up and collage those classics into something new, injecting enough volume so that those masculine pieces weren’t so much borrowed from the boys as loaned from the lads, with a big, slouchy, slope-shouldered line, amplifying the leanness of what was underneath.

Other times, she added the likes of Persian lamb storm flaps to a trench, or, to rather great effect, a quilted and furred detachable collar-cum-scarf in a contrast navy over a gray herringbone tweed coat. “I discovered Aquascutum invented removable linings,” Sykes said of the latter design feature. “To me, that’s like the modern fur collar.” Her impulse to focus on jackets and coats was smart and right, but sometimes in her desire to cut and paste, often everything became too complicated. The reason the trench et al. have lasted for so long is that they are easy and functional. She had the latter down, but the former, not so much. But it will be worth keeping an eye on Sykes and where she could take Aquascutum; her own line, Sykes, was all things minimal way back before that look became so prevalent again. And she should be allowed to keep herself, and her taste, firmly to the fore of the new Aquascutum: a cool, intelligent woman who wants to dress women just like her.